of rebel—held douma, reports emerge of a chemical weapons attack killing more than 150 people. in germany, the chancellor angela merkel says she is deeply shocked by a vehicle attack on the north—western city of muenster which left two people dead and around 20 injured. the perpetrator drove a car into a busy pedestrianised street and took his own life. 0fficials pedestrianised street and took his own life. officials say there is no indication he had any islamist connections. brazil's former president has ended a two—day stand—off and surrendered to police to begina stand—off and surrendered to police to begin a 12 year sentence for corruption. he had been a while holed up in a union headquarters near sao paulo. he walked out to be taken away in a convoy of police cars. holidaymakers are being warned about fraudsters who place false adverts on accommodation websites. last year, nearly 5,000 travellers fell victim to such scams, which included fake airline tickets. our business correspondent nina warhurst reports. when georgia was looking to take her boyfriend to amsterdam, she thought she'd seen the perfect apartment online. after transferring more than £900,

she realised there was no record of payment and no apartment. your heartjust drops and it's like this panicjust comes over you, completely takes over your body, and it's like, "what have i done?" and she's not the only one. last year, georgia was one of 11,700 holidaymakers who reported fraud, losing an average of £1,500. fake flights are the most common trick, with fraudsters targeting peak periods. a lot of the statistics from the report shows a big spike around december. what does that say to you? it's people going home for christmas, and that is our experience when people phone us, saying just that — and something they've been looking forward to, it isn't going to happen. it can be extremely disappointing. losing a holiday hurts. more than a tenth of those who made complaints said the impact was so severe, they'd had to receive medical treatment or were at risk of bankruptcy. the advice for holidaymakers is to thoroughly research websites

before booking and check they are part of a recognised trading body. nina warhurst, bbc news. now on bbc news, ben zand has travelled to guatemala to investigate claims of miracle healings and giant vegetables, in the second part of cults, gangs and god. i had made it to guatemala, the home of mayans and volcanoes. as well as having big problems with poverty, corruption and crime, it also has one of the highest population of protestants and evangelical christians in all of south america. very religious place. it also has these — ginormous mega—churches. i had been hearing a lot about evangelical pastors and one name kept on coming up — cash luna. ask anyone here, and they will know who he is. not only does he claim to be

in direct communication with the big man himself, but he is also a multimillionaire, and has one of the biggest churches in the world, casa de dios, or house of god, which can hold over 11,000 people. i was on my way to visit him. that is one big—ass church. it looks like an alien space ship. bloody hell. let me just remind you, like, this isn't anfield, this a church. it is just a normal sunday ceremony and it's — oh my god, look at it. it is like a theatre. hello. i've been to a few churches in my life, and they're usually quite solemn places, quite dark, quite old—looking, this looks at somewhere i would see mariah carey perform. cash luna is a superstar here,

with thousands of adoring fans who come each week. he isn'tjust one of the most famous men in guatemala but he's famous all over central and latin america. we are up again. and he knows how to put on a show. the church has a dedicated band and its own theme tune. uplifting music. do you know who wrote the song? during each congregation, the donation baskets come out and people give all they can in the hope a sickness will be

cured, or they'll get richer. this is often called the prosperity gospel. this message resonates well in a country where over half the population is below the national poverty line. 23% live in extreme poverty. what is more impressive, though, is that he says he has the ability to heal people through god. there was even a video playing at the congregation, where they claimed that a woman had been healed of hiv due to attending the church. applause.

i was amazed. this was a man who is said to cure people of hiv through the power of god. i wanted to talk to him, and as soon as the congregation finished, i got my chance. hello! how's it going, nice to meet you. this is very nice. ijoined cash luna for breakfast with his family. it was amazing to see you up there. you are so experienced at talking to people. i try to not use religion language when i speak. somebody who knows nothing of what you teach, how would you explain what it is you are telling them? they're looking for options, they are looking for solutions. so i have one, it isjesus. you saw the testimony of this lady with. ..

she got cured of hiv, with god? yes. a lot of people would say that is impossible. that is the amazing thing, to experience impossible things for the rest of the people. is there a limit to the things, if i broke my leg, there is hiv... you tell me. i don't know. if he can heal hiv, he can heal your knee or your leg... you think so? i believe, i believe so. everything can be healed? why is everybody not healed of these things? i really don't know. people say, you don't get healed because you don't have enough faith — i don't want to say that, because i don't want to condemn nobody. it's safe to say i was sceptical that people were being cured of hiv after attending casa de dios. the only evidence i had seen seemed to be a video that played on repeat

during cash's congregation. i wanted to ask about money. he's a millionaire, and it seemed like he was preaching the prosperity gospel — telling people that if they gave his church money, god would make them rich, like him. do you see yourself as a rich man? are you a rich man? not like a rich man, like a blessed... to be a blessed man is different to being rich. 0k. the bible says that god can give you riches without sadness. are you saying you are rich and really happy simultaneously? no, i am saying, i am blessed with or no, with riches or without riches. are there misconceptions about you, people are telling me you have a privatejet... the church has a private jet, it is for six people. it is an incredible place. i have never seen a church like this, it is amazing. was it made on people's donations? yes. how much did it cost? ah, millions, 45 million. when you got 45 million,

did you think, like i could build ten hospitals? sometimes we have more people getting healed here than in hospitals. we are in the healing also. i had seen one video online i was particularly amazed at. it showed cash luna using the power of the bible to take over people's bodies. i had heard it got him a lot of attention, so wanted ask about it. there is an amazing video of, you lay down a bible, and there's people walking... yeah, this is one of the more polemical videos. i mean, it is amazing. explain how god comes through. this is like a wall. if you see the video,

and you weren't there, you would understand nothing. can we walk with you? it would be nice to see... it was time for cash to head back onstage. it really is not hard to see why he does this. he has got thousands of adoring fans, he owns one of the biggest churches in the world, and he has got a freaking private jet. and this shows you how big evangelism is here, this is just one church. my time with cash had not worked out like i hoped. he seemed a bit annoyed by my interview — maybe he didn't like the questions i asked. and he didn't want to meet again a few days later as we had originally agreed. but cash luna is not the only pastor like this. guatemala is full of these people, and pastors from all over are trying to follow in cash luna's footsteps. there was one place i had heard

of which was known for not only being evangelical but for the biggest miracle of all. god had blessed it with giant carrots — yes, giant carrots. and now it was enjoying an era of prosperity. one of the most ambitious and influential pastors in the town was pastor sanchez, an avid follower of cash luna. it is an honour to meet you, sir. i recognise this man here, this is cash luna. si. he is very famous in guatemala. oh, that's in miami? do you talk to him quite a lot? do you phone him...? i heard a bit about your personal story with god. has god said anything to you while we have been filming?

is he actually saying that everyone who watches this film will then believe in god? you are confident that's going to happen, you're even remotely concerned it might not? you arejust certain

that will happen? there is a chance that if this gets viewed by enough people, this film could literally cure the world of everything? are you feeling god as we speak? is there any way you can display for us now on camera what god is telling you, what he is doing? so it's just gone in those few seconds that i asked that question? 0h, these are the carrots? you have got the carrots and stuff there. wow, they are pretty hefty carrots.

that is a pretty big carrot, i did not expect it be so big. it is bigger than my foot! the story of almolonga goes like this. the people here used to believe in other gods, and so they were punished. the crops were small, they had problems with alcohol, poverty and loose morals. but since they started to believe in the god of people like pastor sanchez, it all changed. why do you think that out of all things, god decided to give almolonga really nice carrots?

money could have rained down on the city, could have gave everyone fantastic health. 0h, they're just tiny carrots. what happened to these carrots? i was admittedly amazed at the size of almolonga's carrots. it's all a lie! i was admittedly amazed at the size of almolonga's carrots. but something told me there was more to the story than the divine power of god. i arranged a call with a woman named yulia who was doing a phd on the miracle of almolonga. so i have just been to almolonga and i saw some giant carrots. i mean, the carrots are legitimately massive.

i mean, i was genuinely amazed. why — why are they so big? would you say that almolonga is using too many fertilisers, too many pesticides? yulia told me almolonga did have good conditions for growing vegetables, but that the overuse of chemicals was worrying. i wanted to know if the people working on almolonga's farms knew of these risks, or whether the apparent presence of god made them feel as though they were protected.

it smells very strong. i have a bit of a headache. has anybody ever told you that these chemicals might have adverse side—effects? i mean, a lot of people tell me that it is god that make the carrots big, but it seems like if you didn't use the fertilisers, so do you think that maybe this idea that god has made them huge, maybe it's not entirely true? do you think god protects almolonga and the people here,

so everyone will be ok? i was surprised by what i'd found. i wanted to speak to pastor sanchez about it, so i headed back to meet him. it was the day of his congregation. hola, pastor sanchez. nice to see you. thank you very much. i decided to wait until after the event that evening to ask about the carrots. there was a lot he planned to show me, and he'd invited me to his house. oh, it's a fancy car. 0ff camera, paster sanchez told me that he actually ran a trucking company, transporting vegetables all over central america. so as well as being a pastor then, you also work in the vegetable business? so i suppose you're very lucky then that god blessed this area and gave it big carrots because i suppose

you make more money from that. let's do it. what do you think people see when you drive round the streets with your bmw, your nice jacket? what do you think, like, the population are thinking when they see you fly by? as night—time hit, i made my way to the congregation.

i've only really got one question i want to ask him now, which is about the carrots, and whether they, in fact, come from fertiliser and not god, and i'm a little bit nervous to ask him about it. it was clear pastor sanchez was a popular man. the church was packed and he even had his own tv show. but there was something very familiar about what i was seeing. then, right in the middle of the ceremony, i was called on stage. the whole town had heard i was at the congregation and they had a gift for me. look at the size...

that is... it was a bag of giant carrots. ah, this isn't a carrot. this is a small child's leg. laughter. this is awkward now. i have to ask him about the carrots in front of everybody. ah...but... thank you for the carrots. i mean, this is actually ridiculous. i had one question about them. maybe it's not so much god that makes them big, but it's because people are using a lot of fertiliser. have you ever heard of that before? i mean, you definitely have some good land here,

but i've basically been told that to get this big, people need to put quite a lot of fertiliser on. that can be bad for people's health. you don't think so? these types of chemicals, they can increase diabetes risks, cancer risks, all sorts of diseases. do you think people would be scared, if it was true, to tell people? because the town would lose a lot of money, people like yourself wouldn't make as much money. so would they even want to tell people if it was true? thank you. so i don't quite know what i was expecting pastor sanchez to say, but that was a very difficult conversation to have. religion is so important to almolonga, and these carrots are so important to almolonga, so ijust felt like i was destroying their most famous story. there is a reason that the carrots

are massive, but something tells me that it's not because of god. but for people like pastor sanchez, the truth is bad for business, so i can't see a change any time soon. mixed weather fortunes to start the weekend, some of us broken cloud and sunny spells and pleasently warmth, 19 degrees celsius at gravesend in kent, the uk's highest temperature of the year so far. looked pretty nice at whitstable as well. but not everybody enjoyed this kind of weather. there was a spell of rain moving north on saturday and for a while in the afternoon, cumbria looked like this. it will be cheerier in the day ahead. and this is what it looks like first thing.

a mild start in south—eastern areas. but some patchy rain around. elsewhere, mainly dry. mist and fog, temperatures in mid to low single figures. the weather picture for part two of the weekend is fairly quiet for most of us but this weather front is a troublemaker, particularly who's going to get the rain from it. sunday a hard one to summarise. many northern and western parts of the uk might well stay dry, and get to see some sunshine at times. may catch a shower. there is the chance of rain covering much of england from that weather front i showed you. this rain mayjust drift a little bit further west into parts of the midlands, maybe to dorset too, heading towards the east midlands and lincolnshire. some to the east of it, easternmost parts of england might avoid the rain and stay dry. with the exception of a few showers. elsewhere, scotland and northern ireland, sunny spells developing, one of two showers, not everybody will catch one. one or two showers breaking out too towards westernmost england and wales, but also

seeing some sunshine. temperatures around 10 or 1a degrees, cooler, where you have the sunshine yesterday, it might feel a bit warmer than yesterday. brightens up in the afternoon. still to south—eastern parts on sunday evening, some outbreaks of rain. looking ahead to monday, we still have this weather front just edging a little bit further westward, similar temperatures across the united kingdom. not a huge deal of difference from our weather on monday. but there are developments as we go through the week ahead. on tuesday, still come weather fronts close by. i can show you this picture which has high pressure in scandinavia and a developing easterly flow.

we have seen that before in recent months. don't worry. nothing too beastly in the week ahead. probably the best of any limited brightness in the west of the uk. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: american officials say they believe at least a0 people —— american officials say they believe at least 70 people have been killed in what appears to be a chemical weapons attack in syria. german police say a man who drove into a busy street cafe in muenster, killing two people, had psychological problems. translation: the perpetrator who, at around 3pm, ploughed into a group of people was a german citizen and not, as it was reported, a refugee or something similar. brazil's former president lula is beginning a 12—year prison sentence for corruption after surrendering to police. president putinjoins worshippers at midnight mass in moscow to celebrate the orthodox easter.